Riyadh - The first of two Saudi Arabian planes arrived in Riyadh on Friday carrying nine injured Palestinians for treatment in Saudi hospitals, local media reported. Since the start of Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, more than 400 people have died, and some 2,200 have been injured, according to aid agencies.
A second Saudi plane has arrived at the Egyptian border town of al-Arish airport, ready to move more Gazan casualties to Saudi hospitals for treatment, a spokesman of the Saudi Ministry of Health, Khaled Marghany said in press statements.
Among the injured was an eight-year-old child with a wound in his head. "This reflects the brutality of the Israeli attacks on Gaza," the Palestinian ambassador in Saudi Arabia said.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz called on Thursday for an urgent national aid campaign for the people in Gaza.
Saudi Arabia and other US-allied Arab states such as Egypt and Jordan have come under fire in the Arab world for not doing enough to help Gaza.
Many of those countries are uncomfortable with Hamas, the militant Islamist group which took over Gaza from the rival Palestinian organisation Fatah in 2007.
